His relatives live very close to the Idukki dam, one of the worst-affected areas in the floods in Kerala. But Shantymol gave very little of the news to her swimmer son Sajan Prakash as she felt it would affect his performance at the Asian Games here.
“Many of my mother’s relatives live there, close to the dam, but she tried to keep me out of this as much as she could so that it didn’t upset me,” said Sajan after breaking his own 200m national record in the 200m butterfly here. “I think they are okay now, I hope they are.”
Some of the world’s best, including many Olympic and World champions, figure in the Asian Games and Sajan felt that the best of facilities should be given to swimmers to match them.
“There are many Olympic champions here, if you want to race with them, you need to give us similar facilities like they have. If you expect so much, give us the best too,” he said.
“I’ve been funded by TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme), I’m thankful to the government for that, but then travelling alone everywhere (for training and competitions) does not help much.”
